Klazien Schreuders-Kolk

Klazien Schreuders-Kolk was 17 years old when she witnessed the shooting on the Dam. She was there with her friends. Her brother, in the meantime deceased, found himself on the roof above the entrance of the Nieuwe Kerk. He managed to bring himself in safety by kicking the leaded glass windows, so he had a safe place in the church.
Klazien ran from the Dam square in the direction of the Bijenkorf, were as she remembers, were laying a long row of bodies. She brought herself in safety by running into the Warmoestraat and from there with the ferry via the IJ to the Vogelbuurt, were she lived.
The shooting on the Dam is for her a memory that now returns with this visit. But her most penetrating war experience is being shaped by the three allied bombardments on the Fokker factories on the Papaverweg in Amsterdam-Noord.
She never spoke with her friends about what took place on the Dam on May 7 1945.